13 February 2013

Europe's shipbreaking proposals may be illegal, lawyers warn:

Leaked papers express
grave concerns over the shipping industry's bid to overturn a treaty on the
disposal of toxic waste

urope's plan to overturn a ban on contaminated ships being
broken up in developing countries may be illegal, according to the European
Union's own lawyers.

Leaked European council legal opinion papers seen by
the Guardian express grave concerns over the European commission's attempts to
exempt ships from the Basel convention, the global treaty that demands that
rich countries dispose of their own asbestos and other hazardous waste
materials, and do not add to pollution in poorer countries.

In a move that the Shipbreaking Platform – a
coalition of human rights and environment groups – says would set a precedent
in international law, the commission has proposed to exempt all ships from the
convention and its own legislation. If the move succeeds, this would allow
shipowners to legally export toxic ships to developing countries.

But the legal service says in a restricted document:
"[We] consider that there is a serious risk that the … exclusion of ships
from regulation 1013/2006 in the manner being proposed could amount to a breach
of the obligation not to defeat the object and purpose of a treaty… "

Human rights and environment groups accused the
commission of trying to impose double standards. "The EC's proposal to
allow the shipping industry to ignore the Basel convention is scandalous and
illegal. It is absurd to imagine that a huge oil company could legally dump
their old rusty tanker full of asbestos in Asia when it would be a criminal act
for anybody else to likewise export one single barrel of the same asbestos. But
that is what the [EC] is proposing," said Jim Puckett of the toxic trade
watchdog group, Basel Action Network.

European shipowners sent a record 365 vessels to be
broken up on beaches in Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan last year, a 75%
increase on 2011. Greece sent 174 ships, Germany 39, Norway 37 and Britain 32
with the remainder from 14 other countries. One firm from landlocked
Switzerland sent 23 vessels for breaking.

Although the Basel convention and the European waste
shipment regulations specifically ban the export of toxic waste, shipowners
have found it easy to circumvent the law by changing flags and selling their
vessels for scrap once they are outside EU waters.

Gangs of workers dismantle the giant vessels by hand,
often leading to deaths, injuries, explosions and chemical spillages, as well
as contamination of the beaches and waters around the breaking yards and
destruction of coastal mangrove forests.

The toxic materials must be taken off the ships and
disposed of, but some countries have limited facilities to handle the waste.
According to the World Bank, Bangladesh alone is expected to have 79,000 tonnes
of asbestos and 240,000 tonnes of cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCB) chemicals "dumped" on it by rich country's ships in the next 20
years.

Partly in response to criticism, the shipowners have
worked with the UN's International Maritime Organisation to draw up the weaker
Hong Kong convention in 2009. This permits ships to be exported to authorised
facilities in rich or poor countries that have ratified it. However, it is
unlikely to become legally binding for 10 or more years.

Patrizia Heidegger, executive director of
Shipbreaking Platform, said: "The two conventions are complimentary and
work well with each other. To scrap Basel obligations, Europe will be throwing
away the very principles it has championed on the world stage, it will be
undermining European ship recycling job opportunities, while poisoning some of
the world's poorest, most desperate workers – its a lose-lose-lose proposition,
all simply to line the pockets of shipping moguls."

Shipbreaking in south Asia is regarded by developing
countries as a key industry because it supplies a substantial quantity of scrap
steel for their iron and steel industries. Nearly every part of the ship is
recycled.

But despite protestations that the industry is much
better regulated than only a few years ago, accidents continue to happen and
little compensation is paid to people injured.

The International Labour Organisation has described
the work on shipbreaking beaches as among the most dangerous jobs in the world.
Most of the workers are migrants from poor rural areas and many have been found
to be under 15 years old.